google at 64%. that's important to note. the reason why these companies have so much cash overseas is that they've been global growth stories. when microsoft sells product overseas the proceeds go into accounts over there. don't come to the u.s. unless microsoft needs to buy something here. you can see it plays out in a company like apple, too, where international launches and international retail expansion have become far more important than the u.s. where growth is concerned. just five years ago apple had 58% of its cash in the u.s. this is actually a big issue for a company like cisco where john chambers has been very straightforward about saying if the federal government lets us repay treeuate this cash, bring it to the u.s. without a big penalty, we'll use it to hire and grow in this country. if not we'll hire less and, by the way, keep making bigger overseas acquisitions, too. all of this gets a bit dicier when you consider a lot of u.s. companies have gotten pretty good at avoiding tax on international sales by using